Multilingual websites and SEO: hreflang, multiple scripts and mistakes that cost rankings

A multilingual site is one of the strongest ways for a company to grow beyond its home market. But a poorly built multilingual site can be worse than a single-language one: Google does not know which version to show, and visitors get the wrong language.

Rule 1: every language at its own URL

Do not switch language with a cookie or JavaScript on the same URL. Each version needs its own URL, for example:

• evi.rs/usluge (Serbian Latin),
• evi.rs/sr-cyrl/usluge (Serbian Cyrillic),
• evi.rs/en/services (English).

Rule 2: hreflang on every version

Each page lists all of its language versions in the <head>, including itself, plus x-default for visitors whose language you do not have. For Serbian use sr-Latn and sr-Cyrl. The same links go into the sitemap.

Rule 3: localized URLs and content

URLs in the user's language (/de/leistungen, /tr/hizmetler) help both SEO and trust. Translation is not enough: adapt examples, currencies and keywords to the market.

Two scripts, one language

Serbian is special because users search in both Cyrillic and Latin. The fix is to have both versions, with correct transliteration (lj, nj, dž) and without transliterating brand and technology names. For quick conversion use our Cyrillic to Latin converter.

Common mistakes

• hreflang only on the home page,
• hreflang pointing to pages that do not exist or redirect,
• a canonical tag pointing all languages to one version,
• automatic IP-based redirects, so Googlebot only sees one language,
• mixing languages on one page.

Example: this site

evi.rs exists in six languages (Serbian Latin and Cyrillic, English, German, Russian and Turkish), each with its own URLs, hreflang tags, sitemap and an llms.txt file for AI search engines.

Planning a multilingual site or a redesign without losing rankings? See website development or send an inquiry.